Reports of Kenwood TS-590SG Fans Installed Backwards

Initial reports are trickling in over on the Kenwood TS-590 Yahoo Group that a certain number of Kenwood TS-590SG owners have reported their fans being backwards (facing towards the display, and not towards the rear of the radio like they should be). My serial number begins with a B56, purchased in late 2015, and was not affected. As I understand it only a small batch was affected, some saying from 2016 specifically, but just to be sure, I wanted to check, as something like this could drastically reduce the life of the radio if not corrected. The 590SG already has phenomenal cooling, so users might not even know that the fans are backwards. Another test one user mentioned was to hold tissue at the rear of the radio, and once your able to get the radio to kick the fans on, hold a small piece of light tissue at the rear of the radio and see if it sucks it towards the radio or blows it away. The latter didn’t seem as scientific to me, LOL, so I popped open the radio just to be sure:

Kenwood will do the fix for free, even for models that might happen to be out of warranty that were affected. Some have just fixed it themselves to avoid sending in their radio, it’s a simple enough fix I would guess, but still annoying nonetheless. That’s a ding on quality control Kenwood, but no worries, this radio is so beautiful, I can’t hold it against ya’ Kenwood.

I just unboxed a Kenwood 590sg. Serial number starts B 71 which is a manufacture date of Jan 2017. I am sincerely hoping that the fans are on correctly. Don’t want to crack it open and reverse the fans. At least the Firmware should be up to date. Just getting back in activity after years. I’m not used to the Menu Driven rigs. Got a double dose though. Also purchased the latest Kenwood HT with all the bells and whistles , Triband !D-Star etc. The SG was 1265 . Two hundred more for Astron RS35. Lifetime warranties on both was thrown in. The Kenwood HT ,was 650 but GigaParts came down 50.00 to meet competitors prices. Also Lifetime Warranty and free shipping. Bill K4MH.

K5ACL

26 April 2017 at
10:11 PM

Wow! Someone’s going to be busy for awhile! They should be correct, let me know if not! Got yourself two very fine rigs! Kenwood makes some impressive equipment!